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2 teens killed during after-hours visit to Calgary bobsled track

Six others were injured in the incident at the WinSport facility early Saturday morning.

A tarp covers the intersection of the bobsled and luge tracks at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, Alta., on Saturday. An after-hours visit to a Calgary luge-bobsled track early Saturday resulted in the deaths of two young men and injuries to six others. (Larry MacDougal / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Calgary police say emergency crews were called to the WinSport facility in northwest Calgary at 1:30 a.m. after a report of several injured people on the closed track. (Larry MacDougal / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

By Bill GravelandThe Canadian Press

Sat., Feb. 6, 2016

CALGARY—An after-hours visit to a Calgary luge-bobsled track early Saturday resulted in the deaths of two young men and injuries to six others.

Calgary police say emergency crews were called to the WinSport facility in northwest Calgary at 1:30 a.m. after a report that there were several injured people on a closed track.

“They used their personal sled/toboggan in an attempt to go down the bobsled track,” Insp. Kelly Campbell said. “Partway down, they hit a large gate that’s used to separate the luge and the bobsled track.

“We’re working to determine how they entered the property, what led up to the decision to enter the closed track. We don’t have a lot of details as to what really went on other than they went down the track and several were injured and two were deceased.”

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Campbell said the idea to use the track might have been a spur-of-the-moment decision by the teens, who ranged in age from 16 to 19. Their identities have not been made public.

WinSport Canada owns and operates Canada Olympic Park, which hosted events during the 1988 Winter Olympics. Several World Cup events are held at the site as well.

The WinSport website boasts that the bobsled track offers speeds of more than 100 km/hour. The tracks are open to the public during the daytime. Riders can take the luge track solo but the bobsled is piloted by a professional.

An EMS official said the location of the accident made it difficult for the first paramedic team to arrive because of slippery conditions and poor lighting.

“They thought, initially, there was one person. But they found a group of males in their late teens quite injured. They were able to triage and assess all of them in a timely fashion. Unfortunately, they had to determine two of them deceased on scene,” said EMS public education officer Adam Loria.

“Obviously, it was a difficult situation at the time and two people were determined deceased on scene here and unfortunately given the injuries sustained there was no resuscitation put forth.”

Loria said an additional six ambulances had to be called in. Three of the injured were sent to hospital with serious soft-tissue injuries and the remainder received minor bumps and bruises. None of the injuries is considered to be life-threatening.

Jeff Hughes, who lives across the street from the start of the bobsled run, said people are often hanging out around the facility, but he’d heard of nothing like this.

“Does it surprise me that there’s teenagers out there looking at having fun on a Friday night and do something that’s a little bit reckless? No, because I’ve been there,” Hughes said.

“But, obviously, it’s unbelievably tragic that it ended this way and I’m certainly surprised that something so awful could happen.”

Barry Heck, WinSport’s president and CEO, said the organization is co-operating with the police investigation as well as conducting its own review.

Heck said measures are taken to make sure the park is secure and noted there are two security guards on duty at night.

“I’ve heard of incidents of people coming into the park. I do not personally know of any incidents of people being on the sliding track,” Heck said at a news conference Saturday evening.

Calgary police brought in the traffic reconstruction unit as well as officers from the centralized general investigations section.

Officials had said earlier Saturday they were looking for two witnesses who were believed to have left the park after the accident, but police corrected that later and now say those two were part of the group of eight young men and have been accounted for.

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